BigbadB

Seriously, are you joking? Grasping for straws? How am I grasping for straws? Almost everyone else disagrees with you. Are facts "grasping for straws"? That sounds ridiculous to me. Fighting unfairly? Are you joking? You blatantly lie repeatedly, I call it out, and that means I'm "fighting unfairly"? Where do you come up with this stuff? And the "I have kids and work for a living" stuff is nonsense as well. What does that have to do with anything? Does that make it okay to lie? Does that make it okay to repeatedly say things and then fail to back it up? You guarantee it? Okay, then what sort of compensation are you going to offer me if that doesn't come true? If you can't somehow compensate me, then you're making a prediction and not a guarantee. I seriously think you need to listen to that interview again, because Lou never said that. If he did, why don't you listen again and type word for word what he said, so we can judge it ourselves? Oh, because "you have kids and work for a living", so you don't have time. Right. I'd say there's about a 50/50 chance Soriano would be moved down if they ended up getting Roberts, and I think the odds are only that good because of Soriano's leg problems. If I had to bet, I'd still say that Roberts would bat second and Soriano leadoff. However, I'm reasonable enough to know that I can't make some sort of ridiculous guarantee as if I know for sure, because none of us know that. I also know that I won't lie about what Lou said just to make my point seem more valid. How did I speak for a moderator? All I did was remind you to what HE said. As for disagreeing with that I've said, then fine. The thing is, you never make counter arguments. You act like you can't hear anything and then jump to other statements instead of carrying on a discussion, all the while claiming it's because you "don't have time", which we all know is just an excuse, since you clearly have enough time to post repeatedly. These are a few of the reasons why most of this board doesn't take you seriously and either a)make fun of you, or b)ignore you. As for me, I think it's time for letter B. As others have said in the past week, congratulations for being the first person that has ever made me feel inclinced to use the ignore feature. I'm sure I won't be the last. Have a nice life. I have to admit your responses are a bit hostile. Back it up a notch and just have a healthy discussion. No reason to get upset about it.

Except for the fact that pitchers are batted for about twice a game. Cubs hitters were on base 136 times (.227 OBP) in the 9th spot in the batting order. Orioles hitters were on base 171 times (.279 OBP) in the 9th spot in the batting order. And Soriano is much better at driving in those bottom of the order hitters than Roberts is. The thing I like about Soriano batting first is it guarantees one of the better hitters on the team gets the most at bats. And when you work your way through the bottom of the order, if you do happen to get one of the weaker parts of the line up to get on base, you don't have to wait until Lee comes to the plate in hopes someone can drive those guys in. Soriano can do it. 13 more RBI's than Roberts last year in 99 less at bats with a weaker group of hitters hitting in front of him. Granted, Soriano had 21 more home runs than Roberts, so more than the RBI difference is from hitting himself in, but strengthen the bottom of the order and the Cubs might find themselves in the unique situation of having a 100 RBI guy hitting first in the line up.

The goal is to score runs, period.

I wouldn't be so quick to judge one team to have a superior line up over the other: 2007 Orioles runs scored as a team: 756 2007 Cubs runs scored as a team: 752 2007 Orioles AVG: .272 2007 Cubs AVG: .271 2007 Orioles OBP: .333 2007 Cubs OBP: .333 2007 Orioles SLG: .412 2007 Cubs SLG: .422 (switch Soriano with Roberts, and you can probably reverse the two teams SLG's) 2007 Orioles team hits: 1529 2007 Cubs team hits: 1530 2007 Orioles BB's: 500 2007 Cubs BB's: 500 The Cubs do have a slight advantage if we only look at the 2-6 hitters in the line up, but it's not that much of a difference. But, Soriano also drives in more runners with his bat, as well as driving himself in. Soriano scored 97 times in 2007 Roberts scored 103 times in 2007 Soriano had 99 less plate appearances than Roberts in 2007 In 99 less plate appearances, Soriano drove in 13 more runs than Roberts, and Roberts had the benefit of an actual hitter batting 9th for most of the season.

Oh, that's perfect. Since Colorado's AAA affiliate plays in even more hitter friendly atmosphere than Colorado itself, Neifi should be able to put up good enough numbers to get Dusty all hot and bothered to trade for him at the deadline. It's a thing of beauty!

Bonds would only be about 150 more HGH injections away from owning the Japanese HR record. I think he should go for it! Then he can have another record with an asterisk next to it.

This isn't about what YOU would do. It's about what Lou will do. He may or he may not put Roberts in the lead off spot, but if he does, then you can basically pencil in Theriot to hit 2nd. One of the least likely scenarios I would think Lou would construct his line up would be Roberts, Fukudome, Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Soto, Pie, Theriot. However much Cubs management has said they want a true lead off hitter (which I really haven't heard all that much), they have been much more pronounced in stating they want the left bats to break up the righty bats. As far as your "dream" line up, I'd be all for it because it still puts all the best bats in the line up at the top end of the order, but I have to believe..... Roberts, Fukudome, Soriano, Lee, Ramirez is less likely to happen than Soriano, Roberts, Lee, Ramirez, Fukudome

I can respect other people's opinions, but it doesn't mean I have to buy into their opinion. I think that's what we are seeing in this thread. Some people are just a little more wound up in their responses. Wrigley23 has called our opinions on Soriano just as ridiculous as we find his posts, and that's where the infighting generates. Fact: Soriano produces more runs from the lead off spot than Roberts does. Both scoring and driving them in. It doesn't matter that Roberts produces a much higher OBP than Soriano, because even with last year's difference in OBP, Soriano still scored more runs per at bat than Roberts did, and does so every year he plays. Couple in the fact that Soriano produced more runs as a lead off hitter than Roberts last year with a bum leg for the back half of the season. It is my belief that if Soriano is taken out of the top of the order, he will be moved all the way down to the 6th spot. If he was batting 3rd or 4th, that might be one thing, but personally, I would hate to see Soriano bat 3rd or 4th over Lee or Ramirez. And if Lou wants Fukudome to break up the lefties, that puts Soriano in the 6 spot in the order, which takes about 100 PA away from Soriano. Soriano with 600 PA>>>>>>>>>>Soriano with 500 PA By moving Soriano to 6th in the order opens the door for Theriot to bat 2nd. Soriano provides a better OBP than Theriot. So now you are sacrificing OBP and OPS, not to mention giving Theriot 100-150 more PA over the course of a season than he should have if he were batting 8th rather than 2nd. The perfectly logical answer to all of this is to bat Soriano first followed by Roberts. With those two guys at the top of the order, you get the best of both worlds, as well as arguably one of the best 1/2 punches in MLB. I do appreciate at that Wrigley23 values OBP. It's rather apparent that Lou likes it a lot more than Dusty did. The guys who can make it in the big leagues with a not so stellar OBP are guys like Soriano, who can make up for their lack of OBP with SLG. While the lack of OBP is the one thing keeping someone like Soriano from being a true superstar in this game, I don't think the answer to a Brian Roberts acquisition is moving Soriano down umpteen places in the batting order to accommodate Roberts. There is room to share some top of the order love. And with that, I'm done talking about this subject, because right now Roberts anywhere in the batting order is simply a wet dream since he is currently a Baltimore Oriole.

Link. :grin: I'm a bit disappointed he didn't say "one or the other or BOTH". :(

Somebody posted recently that he was playing in South Korea.

I think we should steal early and steal often when Jason Kendall is behind the plate. He owes us a lot of extra bases from last season.

Fair enough. However, I haven't deemed him worthless. He'd make for a decent 5th outfielder. He's 26 years old and doesn't bring enough to the table to be a solid starting CF candidate.

What's quite fascinating is that under Lou Piniella last year, the Cubs increased their walk totals offensively by 105 walks from '06, and only improved in that category from 16th to 15th in walks. But, even with that improvement, they went from 15th in the league in runs scored to 8th. The Cubs pitching staff reduced their walk totals by 100 walks from '06, and went from 16th in the league in walks surrendered in '06 to 13th in '07, and went from 14th in runs allowed to 2nd in the league in runs allowed. All in all, this was a tremendous improvement over the previous year and helped catapult a team from worst to first in the division standings. Granted, there were personnel changes that helped make that happen, but there is also a noticeable difference between the coaching stylings of Dusty and Lou, which also contributed to the improvement. Walks do not clog bases. Walks create more run scoring opportunities, whether they be running scoring opportunities for your own team if you draw more walks, or run scoring opportunities for your opponents if you issue more walks. For a major league manager to ignore the value of a walk is absolutely assinine, and provides further convincing proof that not everyone who actually has a major league management job possesses more knowledge than random posters on a message board simply because they have played the game.

Dusty knows what he speaks. Because in that awesome 2006 season, the Cubs finished 6th in the league in total hits in the NL, and finished 15th in total runs scored because the bases were always clogged by walks. Let's ignore for a moment that Philadelphia (top run scoring team of 2007) had a lower batting average than the Cubs in 2007. The 149 run differential between Philly and the Cubs couldn't have ANYTHING to do with drawing walks, since Philly only drew 231 more walks than the Cubs did in 2007. And to further prove Dusty knows what he speaks, let's look at the 2006 Cubs pitching staff, which clogged bases better than anyone with walks. The Cubs pitching staff only walked 687 guys. Only the Padres allowed less hits per game than the Cubs staff. So, the Cubs gave up less hits than any other team in the NL except for the Padres, yet allowed more runs than any other team in the NL except Washington. Hmmmm. Are you sure you got all of this walk stuff figured out, Dusty? 2006 Cubs pitching staff issued 687 walks while giving up the second least amount of hits and finished 15th in runs given up. 2006 Cubs hitters walked 395 times while accumulating the 6th highest hit total, yet finished 15th in runs scored. Keep telling yourself that clogging bases is a bad thing, Dusty. Because I'm very glad you can apply your outrageously thought provoking theories to the enemy now!

The problem is that the Cubs have always treated him like a 5th wheel, so his trade value is minimal. There probably isn't a team in the game that views Murton as anything more than a possible platoon or 4th outfielder. Teams just don't give up much for a corner outfielder with little to show at the major league level. Unless he helps net a quality player like Brian Roberts, I'd rather not trade him. Even if he goes to Baltimore, he's battling for playing time with Luke Scott and Jay Gibbons (assuming Adam Jones is in CF). Even if he's traded to Texas, he's battling for playing time with Botts, Catallonotto and Nelson Cruz.

And we have one of those guys already in Theriot when Cedeno beats him out of a job.

I don't see a reason to add another bullpen arm. Especially if it means spending a portion of what is left in the budget that needs to be used to make upgrades elsewhere. Also, would Wickman be satisfied with a 6th inning role? Right now, you have Marmol, Wood, Howry in the mix for the back 1/3 of a baseball game. Couple that with Eyre, Wuertz a long reliever and possibly trying to hide Lahey as a mop up reliever and there just isn't room for Wickman. I didn't even mention Dempster, who could find his way back to the pen if he doesn't lock down a rotation spot. Since we are listing ERA+, here is what the Cubs have from last year: Wood- 140 Howry- 140 Marmol- 326 Wuertz- 134 Eyre- 113 Hart- 569 Guzman- 131 Cotts- 96 Piggy- 103 Lahey- ?? Also competing for spots in some form of relief are Ascanio, Petrick, Gallagher, Campusano, Mateo and Marshall. The one thing this team has plenty of depth in is the bullpen. If I add Dempster back to the bullpen (Zambrano, Lilly, Lieber, Hill, Marquis), that's a lot of depth. Wickman's addition only complicates things further.

:shock: Dang, where's that Pie emoticon when you need it?

Even with consistent playing time, he might still struggle for awhile. But, you just have to stick it out because the reward could pay huge dividends later. To borrow another poster's example from earlier in the offseason, Boston put Pedroia at 2b last year and he did this in March and April: .182 .308 .236 Pedroia did this in May: .415 .472 .600 Should Boston have sent Pedroia back down to AAA at the first sign of a struggle? Nope. Just let him get his licks in and sooner or later the truth will be unveiled. No two prospects are alike. Alex Gordon struggled his way through his entire rookie campaign. But, he will eventually show people why he was so highly touted at one point or another. Look what BJ Upton did in his first two stints in the majors in '04 and '06. He was downright horrible. In 2007, he started showing folks what he is capable of. I think the Albert Pujol's and the Miguel Cabrera's cloud a lot of people's judgment of what to expect from a young up and comer. If they just stick Pie out there and let him play, I think he'll prove his value sooner rather than later, and with solid bats like Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, DeRosa and more than likely Fukudome as well, I think the Cubs can afford to be a bit patient with Pie.

My post was somewhat tongue in cheek.

Votto career minor leagues: .289 .385 .476 Choi career minor leagues: .275 .379 .511 Votto=Choi Hatteberg=Karros Only significant difference is Hatteberg hits lefty handed, making it less likely for a platoon. Of course, we could always add Randall Simon to the equation. :wink:

It's only preseason. Dusty obviously still has a lot of work to do to get into game shape. I trust he'll get their soon enough.

Fuld was 25 years old in AA last year. Fuld did this in AA: .290 .372 .388 760 Pie was 20 in AA. Pie did this in AA: .304 .349 .554 903 Career minor league numbers for Fuld: .296 .377 .417 794 Career minor league numbers for Pie: .300 .358 .468 826 Pie did better in AA at 5 years younger.

February 28 @ 2:05 PM against San Francisco. Cubs.com has this wonderful thing called a schedule. :wink: Reminds me back on espn.com when people would post a question asking for a stat that was easily found by clicking on the stats button just to the left of where they were posting. How do people obsessed enough with the Cubs not have knowledge of, and ready access to, their website, schedule, stats, etc? Why should I click the links if I can get you to do it? :D

Not only is flu season in full swing, but a lot of these guys are making the trip to Phoenix from some extremely cold weather areas and the climate change causes all kinds of havoc this time of year. Not saying anyone that's missing any time is sick, but I'd tend to lean towards that being more likely to happen than guessing a trade is going down each time someone misses practice.